Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Quantum Computation: Basics and Harmonic Oscillator

In course

MSE-438: Superconducting electronics: A materials perspective

Introduction to superconducting electronic applications and their material requirements, including the fundamental phenomenology of superconductors. Key applications and their material requirements: a) magnets; b) quantum metrology; c) quantum computation. ...

Description

This lecture introduces the basics of quantum computation, focusing on qubits, Bloch sphere encoding, and harmonic oscillators. It covers the transition from classical bits to quantum bits, encoding information on the Bloch sphere, and the properties of harmonic oscillators in quantum systems.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Theoretical computer science

Theory of computation: Quantum computing

Related concepts (32)

Superconducting quantum computing

Superconducting quantum computing is a branch of solid state quantum computing that implements superconducting electronic circuits using superconducting qubits as artificial atoms, or quantum dots. For superconducting qubits, the two logic states are the ground state and the excited state, denoted respectively. Research in superconducting quantum computing is conducted by companies such as Google, IBM, IMEC, BBN Technologies, Rigetti, and Intel. Many recently developed QPUs (quantum processing units, or quantum chips) utilize superconducting architecture.

Qubit

In quantum computing, a qubit (ˈkjuːbɪt) or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. Examples include the spin of the electron in which the two levels can be taken as spin up and spin down; or the polarization of a single photon in which the two states can be taken to be the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization.

Transmon

In quantum computing, and more specifically in superconducting quantum computing, a transmon is a type of superconducting charge qubit that was designed to have reduced sensitivity to charge noise. The transmon was developed by Robert J. Schoelkopf, Michel Devoret, Steven M. Girvin, and their colleagues at Yale University in 2007. Its name is an abbreviation of the term transmission line shunted plasma oscillation qubit; one which consists of a Cooper-pair box "where the two superconductors are also capacitatively shunted in order to decrease the sensitivity to charge noise, while maintaining a sufficient anharmonicity for selective qubit control".

Charge qubit

In quantum computing, a charge qubit (also known as Cooper-pair box) is a qubit whose basis states are charge states (i.e. states which represent the presence or absence of excess Cooper pairs in the island). In superconducting quantum computing, a charge qubit is formed by a tiny superconducting island coupled by a Josephson junction (or practically, superconducting tunnel junction) to a superconducting reservoir (see figure). The state of the qubit is determined by the number of Cooper pairs that have tunneled across the junction.

Quantum computing

A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. At small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing leverages this behavior, specifically quantum superposition and entanglement, using specialized hardware that supports the preparation and manipulation of quantum states. Classical physics cannot explain the operation of these quantum devices, and a scalable quantum computer could perform some calculations exponentially faster than any modern "classical" computer.

Related lectures (43)

Quantum Computing Basics

Covers the basics of quantum computing, focusing on superconducting qubits, scaling challenges, and potential applications.

Quantum Random Number Generation

Explores quantum random number generation, discussing the challenges and implementations of generating good randomness using quantum devices.

Quantum Information: Bloch Sphere

Explores the Bloch sphere representation in quantum information and the dynamics of spin-1/2 systems.

Quantum Information: Bloch Sphere and Gates

Covers the basics of quantum information, including the Bloch sphere representation and quantum gates.

Trapped Ions Quantum Computing